Dr Koh Poh Koon

Capstone Colorectal Surgery Centre

Specialty

General Surgery

Qualifications

MBBS

MRCS (Edinburgh)

M Med (Surgery)

FRCSEd (General Surgery)

FAMS (General Surgery)

Languages Spoken

English

Background

Dr Koh Poh Koon is the Medical Director and Consultant Colorectal Surgeon of Capstone Colorectal Surgery Centre at Mount Elizabeth Medical Centre. He continues service as a part-time Consultant Surgeon at the Department of Colorectal Surgery in Singapore General Hospital (SGH), and remains as the Acting Director of the Colorectal Cancer Molecular Genetics Research Laboratory as well as the founding Director of the Colorectal Cancer Genomic Health Service in SGH. Dr Koh was a Visiting Consultant to the Division of Surgical Oncology at the National Cancer Centre of Singapore and is also appointed as a Visiting Consultant Surgeon to the Department of Surgery, Changi General Hospital where he continues to mentor surgical trainees undergoing Advanced Specialist Training in Colorectal Surgery. His surgical expertise relates to the use of minimally-invasive laparoscopic as well as robotic-assisted techniques for disorders of the colon and rectum, with emphasis on sphincter-preservation surgery. He has been an accredited Console Surgeon for the Da Vinci Robotic Surgical System since 2009.

Dr Koh received advanced training in surgical treatment of Inflammatory Bowel Diseases in Edinburgh, UK (2002 - 2003) as well as the renowned Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, USA (2006 - 2007) through a HMDP Scholarship funded by the Ministry of Health, Singapore. He was a member of the multidisciplinary care team at the Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) Center in SGH and has lectured at national and international forums on various aspects of IBD surgery. He is a member of the Asia Pacific Consensus Workgroup on Management of Inflammatory Bowel Disease in 2011, formed under the auspices of the APAGE (Asia Pacific Association of Gastroenterology) and helped in the creation of the Asia Pacific Consensus statements for management of IBD in the Asia Pacific region.

Dr Koh also has sub-specialty interest in the clinical management and surgical treatment of patients and their families with Hereditary Colorectal Cancers. For this, he was awarded a second HMDP Scholarship in 2010 to pursue further training on “Clinical Gene Testing and Personalized Medicine in Colorectal Cancer Management” at the Genomic Medicine Institute, Cleveland Clinic (Ohio), USA. Following his return, he became the founding Director of the Colorectal Cancer Genomic Health Service at the Singapore General Hospital. This new service is a first in Asia and provided comprehensive multi-disciplinary care for those at high risk of developing colorectal cancers through the setting up of an integrated High Risk Family Clinic, Genetic Counseling Service and the initiation of clinical genetic testing services. Dr Koh has been invited to speak on this topic in national and international conferences.

Dr Koh is active in clinical and molecular research and has published widely in both clinical and basic science peer-reviewed journals. For his outstanding research work on rectal cancers, he was awarded the Young Investigator’s Award (Medical), at the 13th SGH Annual Scientific Meeting, in 2002. He has served as a reviewer for the Journal of Cancer Research and Therapeutics as well as Diseases of the Colon and Rectum. In addition, he served as a reviewer for the SGH Research Grant as well as an ad-hoc grant reviewer for the NMRC (National Medical Research Council) Grant.

He held academic appointment as Clinical Lecturer in the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine (formerly Faculty of Medicine) at the National University of Singapore. He was also appointed as an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School. As a Co-Supervisor of the Graduate Programme, Dr Koh guides post-graduate students towards achieving their PhD thesis in the Department of Pharmacy, Faculty of Science, National University of Singapore. He has special research interests in genomic and metabonomic profiling of colorectal cancers and has active research collaborations with various A*Star institutions on biomedical innovations and product development. He is also a member of the International Mismatch Repair Consortium (IMRC) researching into the genetic basis of Lynch Syndrome via a world-wide collaborrative research project.

Dr Koh has served on the Executive Committee of the Society of Colorectal Surgeons, Singapore (SCRS) and was elected as the Treasurer for 2009 – 2010. He is currently a Committee Member of the Gastroenterological Society of Singapore (GESS) and is also a Council Member of the International Council of Coloproctology and a member of the American Society of Colon and Rectal Surgeons (ASCRS) where he serves to promote international training and collaboration amongst Colorectal Surgeons.

Dr Koh has served in the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) with distinction. He holds the rank of Lieutenant Colonel and is presently the Commanding Officer (CO) of a Combat Service Support Battalion (CSSB). As a testament to his leadership skills and strategic thinking, he attended the 10th National Service Command and Staff Course (NS-CSC) in 2009 at the Singapore Armed Forces Command and Staff College, where he emerged as the Top Graduate, the first Medical Officer to ever top this pinnacle course for Officers in the SAF.